Press. voanews.com
Donald Trump's
unique, Twitter-driven presidency has re-energized and personalized a national
debate on the media as old as the First Amendment. Trump, backed by some
pundits and commentators on the right, has described some leading news outlets
as "the enemy of the people," intent on destroying his presidency.
He asked
Wednesday on Twitter when it is appropriate to challenge the broadcast licenses
of some outlets he accuses of spreading "fake news." Defenders of
journalism counter there's nothing new in a president chafing at reporting of
his administration's foibles, as every one of his modern-day predecessors has
done.
The difference
is Trump's use of social media to amplify his criticisms, and the determination
of some of America's journalistic powerhouses to increase manpower and
reporting they say is aimed at holding the administration accountable.
In a steady
drumbeat of Twitter posts, Trump has cast himself as the victim. "Wow, so
many Fake News stories today. No matter what I do or say, they will not write
or speak truth. The Fake News Media is out of control!" he tweeted.
Studies show
that coverage of Trump has tilted heavily to the negative. A content analysis
done by the nonprofit Pew Research Center showed that reporting about the first
months of the Trump presidency was 62 percent negative and five percent
positive.
By contrast, the
early 2009 coverage of President Barack Obama's presidency was 42 percent
positive and 20 percent negative, according to Pew. Presidents Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush also had higher negative than positive coverage, but nothing
like Trump's.
Trump critics
see nothing exceptional in those figures given the volume of missteps and
misstatements coming from the Oval Office, but Trump and his supporters
interpret them as evidence of malign intent.
In post after
post on Twitter, the president has pointed the finger directly at some of
America's most influential media and platforms, accusing them of
misrepresenting facts and telling outright lies, and suggesting there is a
concerted campaign to damage his presidency.
Angered by an
NBC News story last week that quoted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as having
called him a "moron," Trump demanded an apology and called for a
congressional investigation. hile the prospect of a Senate probe seems remote,
the president's complaints have reinvigorated some media critics.
"The
national media have a dramatic contempt for Trump," said Tim Graham,
director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center.
"They not only did not vote for him, they really feel he is a dangerous
moron, which is why this [NBC] story resonates with them." "The tenor
of the discussion is, Trump has to deny he's a moron. That, to them, is a good
day," Graham told VOA.
'False
narratives'
Members of the
journalistic community, however, say their coverage is about holding the
administration accountable. Former New York Times executive editor Jill
Abramson, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, said, "The quixotic
nature of the new administration … and the false narratives that tumble out of
the White House daily, cry out for this kind of accountability
journalism."
At the same
time, Abramson warned her former colleagues that some commentary, and the sheer
volume of coverage, could be construed by critics as "gloating" or
"overkill." "This doesn't mean holding back stories, mincing
words, or publishing bland journalism that equates both sides or makes false
equivalencies," the former Times editor wrote. "It means not taking
cheap shots, not publishing biased headlines ... and not overreaching."
Indira
Lakshmanan, the Newmark Chair for Journalism Ethics at the Poynter Institute,
argues Trump's attacks on the media are threatening legitimate concerns over
"fake news," a term originally coined to describe hoax stories meant
to disinform and influence, or simply earn advertising dollars on the internet.
"Trump has
turned a genuine scourge that threatens an informed populace and our democracy
on its head by deeming any critical reports on him that he doesn't like 'fake
news' in an effort to undermine the credibility of Washington political
reporting and mainstream, fact-based journalism in general," Lakshmanan
said in a statement to VOA.
Ironically, the
media may be the long-term beneficiary of Trump's ire. Newspapers such as the
Times, which the president often refers to as "the failing New York
Times," have shown significant increases in readership and revenue.
"Every time
I hear him tweet about the 'failing @nytimes' or use the shopworn sobriquet
'fake news,' I also hear the ka-ching of the so-called 'Trump bump,' which has
helped kick the Times' digital subscriptions above two million since the
election, a revenue stream that is crucial to support its reporting staff at
current levels," Abramson noted.